Event

Welcome to the 7th Annual Mod of the Year Awards - the premiere event that celebrates the best creations within the modding and indie gaming scene. Developers have poured their blood, sweat and tears into creating new gameplay experiences that truly "change the game". Now its time for the gamers to voice their opinions and select their top picks of the year.

From now until Feb 28th, the MOTY will present to you the cream of the crop for 2008 as voted by the public. The top mods and games will win the honors of being placedalongsideotherprojects that have gone on to become commercial successes and cement their place in ModDB's hall of fame. And to the winner goes the spoils; ModDB has teamed up with a whole lineup of sponsors that have provided prizes ranging from software to servers to commercial engines. Everything to help budding developers excel at their craft.

Everyday, ModDB's front page fills with news of recent development updates for projects on every platfrom. Many mods have recognized ModDB as the #1 contributor to the well-being of the community around their mod. The gathering of both gamers and developers that make up our audience and the easy accessibility to them have been the main tenets behind ModDB's success.

The players' choice awards were designed to gauge which mods and indie games hold the most clout among ModDB's community. 2008 saw a large number of quality projects come to fruition, with yet many more to see an eventual release in 2009. The mods listed here are the top five choices ModDB members are anticipating. We've already seen one release since the close of voting (Mideast Crisis 2) and there's a very good chance we'll see the rest release sometime this year.

Honorable Mentions

We would like recognize the mods Black Mesa (Half-Life 2) and Mechwarrior Living Legends(Crysis) who both polled extremely strongly and would have made the top 5. However, because each has already made this list in past years, they are ineligible from making the top 5 again in this category.

Third_Age wrote: 'Third Age - Total War' is a total conversion modification for Medieval II: Total War that brings you into the world of Middle-Earth. The Production has been going since March 2008 and the mod is currently well under development and boasts a variety of new features:
Play epic and strategically demanding battles with the armies of middle earth and there respective heroes. An extensive playable campaign map of middle earth featuring locations taken straight from Middle Earth Lore. 12 unique factions, including Gondor, Rohan, High and Silvan elves, Dwarves, Eriador, Dale, Isengard, Mordor, Rhun, Harad and the Orcs of the Misty Mountains. There is lots more to discover including Improved AI, unique sounds, music, movies, custom artwork amoung many other new features. Nearing the last stages of development, with an active community, the Third Age is a must have for all fantasy and Lord of the rings fans alike.

Mideast_Crisis_2 wrote: "Mideast Crisis 2"(MeC2) is a total conversion for "Command and Conquer 3: Tiberian Wars" by Isotx as the sequel to its "Command and Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour" conversion "Mideast Crisis". Isotx teamed up with Derelict Studios, in which the staff for MeC2 is largely composed out of core team members from past SAGE engine mods such as; Blitzkrieg 2, Halogen (now known as Asylum), Mideast Crisis and Rise of Rome. Features include 3 distinct factions; Israel Defense Forces, the Guardians of Islam and the UN Peacekeepers which you can play in both multiplayer and singleplayer spanning maps (and missions) from Beirut to Jerusalem. MeC2's gameplay focuses on occupation warfare within cities using 3 types of resources; money (from occupation taxes), fuel (from oil derricks and gas stations) and special ammunition (from ammo crates). We're also bringing back secondary resources in the form of; embedded reporters, settlements and hacking.

Renegade_X wrote: Renegade X (formerly known as Renegade 2007) is a mod dedicated to recreating C&C Renegade in the new generation engine, the Unreal Engine 3. We all believe the Command and Conquer series is a very special one, and its fans have been following its games for over a decade now. C&C has been one of the most successful videogame series in the RTS Genre. Our modding team believes that C&C Renegade is truly a hidden gem in the FPS genre.
C&C Renegade's specialty was its multiplayer mode, because it was not mindless killing like most games. A player was thrown into a battle as soon as he joined a server, in which teamplay was the only way to win. The game revolves around a war between the Global Defense Initiative, and the Brotherhood of Nod. Each faction would have their own base of operations consisting of buildings. A team had to work together to destroy the enemy base, while keeping theirs intact. By simply switching engines, our team will have fixed many of C&C Renegade's faults. The original game had many problems such as bad netcoding, poor graphics, glitches, etc. Our main goal is to bring this great gameplay to the masses, all the graphical enhancements is merely just icing on the cake.

Neotokyo wrote: Neotokyo takes place in and around a fictionalized Tokyo approximately 30 years in the future. Mankind has begun to fuse with technology. Government and corporate corruption have transformed Tokyo into a deadly dystopian nightmare. After a near-successful military coup by ranking members of Jinrai, the National Security Force (NSF) is formed - answering directly to the Prime Minister, it's mission is to investigate and eliminate all threats to Japan, both abroad and at home. The initial core of the NSF is made from an exodus from within the intelligence branch of the military. With this betrayal begins the war in the shadows between the NSF and Jinrai. Neotokyo is a first person shooter that aims to provide a visceral & realistic combat experience in a rich futuristic setting.

Dead_Before_Dawn wrote: Dead Before Dawn features Crossroads Mall as a replica of the mall in the movie, Dawn of the Dead. Originally created for the HL2 Mod, No More Room in Hell but has since been undergoing major changes to be ported to Valve's Left 4 Dead. The campaign sports various locations from the movie, including:

I just wonder why people like so much about zombies. Everytimes half of people criticize new World War 2 mods, and maybe we ww2 mod makers deserve it.
But everytimes a new game engine comes out, there is like 10 of new zombie mods and everybody are like "WOW more blood mesh and chainsaws"

Havent played L4D but it seems to take all the best parts from movies. Like Fear, fear and fear and left poor acting of those movies away.
And it seems to lot of fun. Even that i hate those brain dead creature, which dosent even got anykind sensible begining story, like most of creatures got.

How ever im still little bit surprised that zombie game fans can be so fanatic that they vote zombie mod to no.1 even that it got just bunch of maps.

Romero Shambler Zombies would be too intensive since the Romero zombie is very weak unless it is presented in overwhelming numbers. I mean mobs pretty much, stuff that would stress test in a modern game. The rabid zombie however, while weak is still very dangerous and able to become a bigger threat with smaller numbers. It's more resource friendly and tense since seeing a zombie in the distance isn't going to be 'well worry about him later.'

Maybe it's because people like to kill mindless zombie for gore and yelling ( npc/player ) in-game. Well, at least I love to kill some zombies ... ( excluding Resident Evil series, that for me only RE4 was good )

I agree, what's the deal with people calling map packs mods nowadays? the only thing that's different is maps, sure you can do alot with maps but does this Dead Before Dawn attempt to change anything of Left 4 Dead at all? Does it add new characters, new weapons, or even just simply a slightly altered gamemode or even rpg like features?

I've seen tf2 maps that had rpg like features and altered gamemode, sure it was buggy like hell because tf2 doesn't have real modding support but that at least came as close in the direction of a mod as you can probably get in TF2, since there was actually something modded not just map design..

not saying Dead Before Dawn doesn't have this, but as far as I know it doesn't, and if doesn't it's silly it won over something as amazing looking as NeoTokyo:Source, which has been WAY longer in development, don't those guys deserve that first spot.

yeah but it's not a MOD, and this best upcoming MODS not upcoming maps or map packs, it's also gotta be annoying for other mappers, cause if Dead before Dawn wasn't falsely listed as a MOD it wouldn't have even had a chance to win. I doubt other mappers that don't pretend to be a mod had even any chance to make it on here, even if their mapping skills outpawned that of dead before dawn mapper(s).
The only reason THEY don't get a chance is for not naming themselves a mod, having a map pack on here isn't just bad for other mods, but for other mappers as well.

If moddb wants to put map packs up here so badly they should make a category for it, not let map packs enter the spotlights of mods.

That's just mapping, though. You can do that for any mod and it's still a map. It's not like a Sven Co-op map where your weapons get changed and the environment's different and such. Like Megamonsterwhateve (I forgot it's name) in Sven Co-op changes your weapons and enemy models. That could be considered a mod, but it isn't because it follows the Sven Co-op theme of anything goes as long as it's co-op. The Dead Before Dawn maps just add more to the mod. It doesn't change L4D, it just adds to it. A map should be innovative, otherwise, why play it? In HL1, the Crossfire nuke should constitute it as a mod then if it's to follow the same guideline as Dead Before Dawn being a mod.

Gun Game is a mod because it changes CStrike. Complete model packs for weapons are mods because they change everything or a significant amount. If a bunch of maps are to be a mod, then it really needs to distinguish itself from the other maps of the game it's "modding". Otherwise, every map should be a mod because it changes the original game by adding something different with new layouts, etc.. L4D is based on scenarios and that's what Dead Before Dawn does. It could be a good bunch of maps, but that's all it is, a bunch of maps.

However, if it launched outside of L4D, then I'd see it as a mod because it would then be a separate entity.

I don't see how dead before dawn counts as a mod. Its basically just a map set, nothing else. There really isn't any content other then maps with it. It's only under such as a mod because the SDK isn't out :\.

Also Tiberium wars was "Officially" canceled awhile ago, but really that and both renegade 2 and earth no more were flunked out when EA took over in 2003. The Westwood breakoff formed and made such epics as Empire at war and Universe at war.

Nomoreroominhell apparently has started up again according to a few weeks ago. Darth Brush is just 1 of their many former members and he decided to use his prized map as a L4D map, which is all it is, a very very large map. If you go to their modpage 90% of the posts about voting are pretty much "I'll vote for you even though I don't think you can win haha". It doesn't even seem fair that a spammed map wins a best upcoming mod vote. Also, why was 28 days later music playing for a dawn of the dead map based for L4D?!

Hey, makes more than two of us. Since the others chosen were basically total conversions, I was not expecting a couple of maps for Left 4 Dead to win, which Dead before Dawn is. Maps, since the SDK is not out yet. Shame such voting hurt real mods that required more than mapping skills to complete.

Nothing against L4D or the map, but these mods have had hundreds if not thousands of labour hours put in to be joke voted out by a large map split into 4 sections for a game that doesn't even have the modding tools out yet. It's simply insulting IMO.

Have to agree, I can't believe a map pack won this. Don't get me wrong it looks good, but the others have had sooooo much work put into them, when I watched the video it was like a suckerpunch when I got to the end.

Agree. Congrats to all the nominees and winners and it's nice to see a lot of new stuff in the list. Also a map-pack is not a mod at all if it's not bringing new modifications to the game it was made for.

Wait, this must be a joke, right? Dead Before Dawn wins? It's just a map pack! So far, I haven't seen any custom props, weapons or characters at all! I agree that the mapping is decent, but mod of the year? Definitely not. Neotokyo should've won.

I wonder though, even if the map pack can qualify as a mod, didn't left 4 dead come out late 2008, therefore disqualifying this to be even part of 2008 best mods?
apperently it's been development before left4dead, but that's besides the point, then it was different, now it's a left 4 dead "mod"(not rly) and that started late 2008... soooo sup?